AQS

I heard yesterday from AQS that my quilt “Springs Greeting” has been accepted into the new show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 24-27, 2010.

I entered it in the wall category, it is made from my hand dyed silk and cotton sateen fabrics.

Tuesdays Totes

 

100% of the money for Tuesdays Totes goes to the American Cancer Society
through Fiberart For A Cause

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/archives/4265
There is a link from that page to a list of ALL donors:
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/ToteTuesdayDonors.html

I am a donor, check it out and bid high. Here are the content’s of my tote

My new book Fabric to Dye for, the pattern and fabric kit for Petite Sunflowers and an additional yard of my blackened multi stripe hand dyed fabric. What more could you need.

Blue Dog

I love the Cajun artist George Rodrigue, and his "Blue Dog" series of paintings. Here is my Blue Dog picture of the month. I mentioned before that I am dyeing everyday now, getting ready for classes and shows this coming year. These are the fabrics for my patterns “Duluth Trees” and “Blue Trees” and of course George laying on them.

 

Last week of Not your Winter White Sale

This is the last week to receive your free January Special with every order over $25 on my website at FrieStyle.com; 48 - 5” hand dyed squares. These squares are perfect for appliqué or for finding a little color to brighten up your current quilt project.

January Blues

This is kinda how I feel in January in Chicago. The sun doesn’t shine here much and I feel sad and lonely. BUT I leave for South Carolina and Florida in a week so I should feel like this soon.

Happy and full of color!

Dog of a different color

 

 

George loves to help me work. He makes a nest out of ANY fabric on the floor. That is way better than his bed.

Changing the needle is so important

I posted several weeks ago a few tips on machine quilting. One of those was how important it is to change your needles regularly. Here is a perfect example of what happens to needles over time and the difference it can make in your machine quilting.

The first picture shows machine quilting as the needle has started to go bad. You can see the bobbin thread showing at the points in the middle section. I had been using this needle for over a week, working on several small projects but doing over 10-20 hours of quilting and sewing. This morning I stopped to mend my husbands jeans. After mending his jeans I resumed quilting with the same needle and all of a sudden I am getting the bobbin thread showing on the top of my quilting. I of course stopped, changed my needle, cleaned out the bobbin area and resumed quilting without touching the tension. Miraculously the tension was corrected. Right picture.

Apostles of Beauty

A group of us from PAQA/SAQAILWI met at the Art Institute today to see the current exhibit “Apostles of Beauty” Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago. It was an adventuresome group.

Sue, Linda, Pat, Laura, Judy, Stephanie and me taking the picture.

Only Laura had seen the new Contemporary wing and one of these woman had NEVER been to the Art Institute. The exhibit itself was inspiring, as most exhibits are, but I couldn’t take any pictures. I do however always get intrigued by the stuff in the gift shop. So here are my photos of what caught my eye in the new Contemporary wing gift shop.

View Full Album

There were lots of felted things, potholders, pillows, potholders and of course felted rocks.

I just loved these green grass like vases.

And no visit to a museum is complete without the mug shots. Red Felt Bowls or Hats which ever works best.

But the best thing I saw was this charcoal and rock water filter system, $125. That is a lot of bottled water.

Alyson Stanfield workshop

Artists: How would you like to sell more art?
If you could use some fresh and practical ideas for marketing your art,
check this out.
Alyson B. Stanfield, author of “I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The
Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion,” is coming to Wisconsin in
early March to help us get a groove on our marketing.
I’D RATHER BE IN THE STUDIO
A NO-EXCUSES ART MARKETING WORKSHOP
March 9-10, 2010
Siena Center, Racine
**Sign up by February 12 and get a bonus gift from Alyson!
During these two days, you’ll learn
-- How to write a better artist statement that connects with your audience
-- How to organize and expand your mailing list
-- The tragic mistakes artists make on websites and blogs (and how to
fix them)
-- Email secrets that produce results
-- How to increase traffic to your website and blog
-- How to build your online presence with Facebook and Twitter without
becoming a slave to your computer
And it’s only $100! Alyson says this is a crazy low price, so you should
probably grab it while you can.
Two full days of ideas, examples, and motivation to help you get your
art out of the studio and in front of people who can see it and buy it.
AND, you’re going to leave with an action plan.
Get the details and register (by February 12 to get the bonus!) at:
http://www.artquilters.com/retreats/retreat10-03.html
And help us fill the room by sharing this information with other
artists. We’re already at 2/3 capacity!

Frieda

New Book

My book has arrived!! All of you who preordered, your shipments are in the mail. If you have not ordered your own artist signed copy yet, you can do so at my website FrieStyle

Too Cool

I just got the coolest letter from a former student. Tina in OH, sent me a letter with the following stamp on it.

 

This is what she wrote:
I had a super surprise gift this past Christmas. I have a great nephew and his family who live in Michigan and often stay at my house here in Cleveland.
They quietly took a picture of my quilt - and by golly - was I shocked to open a folder with postage stamps I recognized! It was the one I made at your workship a couple years ago. So of course I HAD to send one to you.
Fondly
Tina

Dyeing has begun

The new year is off and running. I have begun the dyeing ritual. Every morning I rise and shine (well some mornings I really don’t shine). I get dressed and start my day. I have been a little lazy the last few weeks, but now the routine returns.

I dye all the fabric for my class kits as well as kits and fabric to sell on the internet and selling in booths that Laura and I will share through out the year. So each morning I have a routine. I get up and make coffee, I exercise, and then I dye a certain amount of fabric. I really don’t mind the dyeing. Here are a few pictures to see how I spend my mornings.

All in a days work. You too can have some of this gorgeous fabric, visit my website and order some up. It will brighten your day when it arrives in the mail and you open the package to such luscious color.

Spelling does it really matter?

I can’t spell worth a darn. I saw this this morning on face book and love it.

Gerrie Congdon wrote; Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. If you can raed tihs, psot it to yuor wlal. Olny 55% of plepoe can.

Annual Holiday Party Cheer

I am so lucky to have a group of quilting friends. We gather several times a year to celebrate and share and just come together as friends. We were unable to meet before Christmas for our holiday party so this past Tuesday at party mistress Laura’s house we gathered for champagne and soup. As always the chatter was loud, fun and informative. Laura made Squash Curry soup and Split Pea. The perfect winter food. The squashes were from her garden! The group brought along the rest, we were very heavy on desserts. Perhaps in the future we should just have champagne and desserts!

Those in attendance this year were, Judy Coates Perez, Anne Lullie, Trish Williams, Jane Sassaman, party girl Laura and myself.

We always seem to gather at Laura’s, she is the hostess with the mostess, and glad to provide a clean and warm home. The snow had not hit us yet this week and travel was easy and the sun was shining, a rare and welcome occurrence in Chicago in January. We even managed to have a short business meeting of SAQA. Laura, Trish and myself are the IL/WI representatives. All in all it was an excellent day of sharing.

Student Work

I always like to post work from my students and I just received this from Pat in Green Bay,WI

Hi Frieda,

After receiving your January newsletter, I remembered you liked to see pics of finished projects.  I finished my Sunset Pines when I returned to Green Bay.  I love it and the techniques you taught me as well.  I did not do a lot of quilting on it, just around the edges of the pines.  Maybe I will do more on my next project, just waiting for inspiration to strike.  Since I have some of your beautiful fabric left, I want to use it wisely.  I have to say I have proudly shown the finished project to family and friends!  It hangs in a special place in my house right now.

Thanks so much for sharing your work and skills with me and others.  Stay warm and out of the snow banks until spring,

Pat

Green Bay,  WI

This was from my Sun Set Pines class in Des Moines this past fall.

Queen Quilter

I just heard on the news upstairs that we are getting 6-10 more inches of snow. Oh boy. It is a perfect time to be inside and quilting on a new project. And guess what I got for Christmas

TA DA

This is the new sit down model of the the Tin Lizzie. I have been wanting a  mid arm machine for a long time. I have sat and tried all the different models and company’s at the quilt shows for the past three to four years. I have NEVER been happy with the tension or the price on any of the machines that I tried until now. I sat at this machine in Houston, and was really taken, but not ready to part with my money. Then I tried it again in Des Moines and finally bought it in Minneapolis. It arrived about a week ago and I am getting ready to really start using that 18” opening 1000 miles an hour motor and slick table to make some great quilted projects. I believe is a great machine at a great price! AND I got a table from Mike of Tracey’s Tables to go with all my other Tracey’s Tables sewing cabinets. I am one happy quilter.

Happy New Year

I received this from my sister-in-law, and I hope I don’t offend anyone.

To paraphrase W.C. Fields, "I don't drink water, because fish screw in it."

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine... and those who don't..
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom,
in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop..
However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine  = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,  than to drink water and be full of sh--.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!